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British researchers question if this false toe worn by an Egyptian woman more than 2,600 years ago had more than merely a cosmetic purpose. Evidence suggests it was a prosthesis, which would make it the world’s oldest. (University of Manchester)Wooden digit could reveal ancient medical know-how

Scientists are trying to determine if a millennia-old artificial big toe from ancient Egypt could really walk the walk

If so, that would make the so-called Cairo toe, a cunning contraption of wood and leather, the oldest "functional" prosthesis ever identified, according to researchers at England's University of Manchester and archaeological experts. Moreover, a functional toe would point to the possibility that surgical skills in Egypt were more advanced than believed, and that "healer-priests" of the time might have had the ability to perform simple amputations, perhaps using cauterization to stop infection and bloodflow.

The false toe in the Cairo Museum is still attached to the mummified right foot of a woman thought to have been in her 50s when she died somewhere between 1069 and 664 BC.

Now researcher Jacky Finch of the University of Manchester's KNH Center for Biomedical Egyptology is recruiting volunteers missing their right big toe to wear duplicates of the artifact, to see whether it really helps with balance and stride. If it does, that would suggest the appendage served a medical purpose and was not simply another funeral adornment in a culture famous for sending the dead off in style.

Finch and her collaborators are also studying a second ancient artificial toe at the British Museum that they suspect might also have served as a prosthesis.

"If we can prove that one or both were functional, we will have pushed back the dawn of prosthetic medicine by at least 700 years," Finch said in an interview. "The Cairo toe seems the more likely of the two, since it is articulated" -- made of three pieces, allowing for more natural movement -- "and shows sign of wear."

The British research, which Finch hopes to complete this year, marks the first practical effort to prove the theory that the Egyptians possessed the medical wherewithal to design and fit artificial limbs.

"Egyptian embalmers regularly replaced missing body parts to try to 'perfect' the body for the next life," said Lesley Dean-Jones, professor of classics at the University of Texas and former president of the Society for Ancient Medicine. She is not involved in the Manchester research. "It would take a great deal more sophistication to make functional prosthetics."

Of even greater interest, she said, is "whether they possessed the medical knowledge required to do amputations and stanch the bleeding. No one knows if the Egyptians were up to it."

Since the female mummy was unearthed in 2000 from a tomb of ancient Thebes, near the present-day city of Luxor, there has been often-hot debate about the toe's purpose. Many mummies possess false appendages -- toes, feet, hands, even male sexual organs.

"The ancient Egyptians were intent that bodies be complete when they were sent into the afterlife," Finch said

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